man has arranged the design for the white and green cover, with the conventionalized daisies in gold on the white ground, and gold letteringfit token of holiday greeting and cheer. It is the ideal book for a gift remembrance-so beautiful and enchanting in sentiment and in form." SILL, E. ROWLAND. The hermitage and later poems. Houghton, M. 16° pap.. $1. "This volume takes its title from a long poem, privately printed, and contains some verses from the same book, with others collected from various magazines. The volume opens with some lines by Thomas Bailey Aldrich, called 'The letter,' and suggested by a letter which Aldrich had received from Sill at the very hour when news of the writer's death had reached him. . . Sill was essentially a modern poet in the fine felicity with which he employed the niceties of language. These niceties are with him not a straining after ingenuity, but an almost unconscious grace."-Brooklyn Times. MAGAZINE POETRY. Echo Song. Aldrich. Atlantic. (Jan.) Stedman. Century. A God of the Aztecs. Helen T. Hutcheson, Century. (Jan.) Longing. Louise M. Sill. Century. (Jan.) At Heart. Rose H. Lathrop. Harper's. (Jan.) POLITICAL AND SOCIAL. CURZON, G. N. Russia in Central Asia in 1889 and the Anglo-Russian question. Longmans, G. 8° $6. The nucleus of this book, less than one-third few of the principal rulings and decisions of the commission under that act, to illustrate its practical operation. WELLS, D. A. Recent economic changes and their effect on the production and distribution of wealth and the well-being of society. pleton. 12° $2. Ap "The problems which our advancing civilization is forcing upon the attention of society are of the utmost urgency and importance, and are already occupying the thoughts, in a greater or less degree, of every intelligent person in all civilized countries. But, in order that there may be intelligent and comprehensive discussion of the situation, and more especially that there may be wise remedial legislation for any economic or social evils that may exist, it is requisite that there should be a clear and full recognition of what has happened. And to simply and comprehensively tell this-to trace out and exhibit in something like regular order the causes and extent of the industrial and social changes and accompaying disturbances which have especially characterized the last fifteen or twenty years of the world's history-has been the main purpose of the author. At the same time the presentation of whatever in the way of deduction from the record of experience has seemed legitimate and likely to aid in correct conclusions, has not been disregarded."-Preface. The chief part of these papers were originally contributed to and published in the Popular Science Monthly and Contemporaiy Review, 1887, 1888. MAGAZINE ARTICLES. Divorce in the U. S. Phelps. Forum. (Dec.) of its present dimensions appeared in a series of Immigration and Crime. Round. articles entitled "Russia in Central Asia," contributed to the Manchester Courier and other leading English provincial newspapers in the months of November and December, 1888, and January, 1889. They described a journey taken along the newly constructed Transcaspian Railway. Full and precise information about Russian affairs is difficult to acquire, owing to the absence of any Russian publications corresponding to the reports of the English government departments. The book is written from a political point of view. The appendix includes directions for travellers, a table of distances in Central Asia, a chronological table of British and Russian movements in Central Asia during this century, and a carefully compiled bibliography. Full index. Tariff and the Farmer. Carlisle. Forum. (Jan.) Studies in Character. I. (Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour.) New Irish Malady and Its Physicians. Hill. Nine. Century. North Amer. (Dec.) Amer. (Jan.) Free Trade and Protection. Blaine; Gladstone. North Two and a Half Per Cent. Iles. Pop. Science. (Jan.) West. Review. Labor Question in Australia. Lockett. DABNEY, W. D. The public regulation of rail- Turners of New York.* Metzner. Cosmopolitan. (Dec.) ways. Putnam. 12° (Question of the day ser., no. 60.) $1.25. This work is intended to be suggestive only, not exhaustive. Its object is merely: 1st, to point out in as plain and popular a manner as possible a few principles which have been authoritatively laid down, defining or suggesting the sources and the limitations of legislative power in this country over railroads and railroad transportation; and 2d, to discuss briefly the chief causes of complaint against railway practices in the United States, and the methods, policy, and propriety of public regulation of commerce by railways. A brief analysis is given of the "Interstate commerce act," and a short résumé of a A Woman on Horseback.* Anna C. Brackett. Harper's. (Jan.) Women and Their Guns. Margaret Bisland. Outing Figure Skating. Vaux. Outing. (Jan.) Recent Objections to the Bible Answered. I. Weidner. Experiences with Spiritualism. Savage. Forum. (Dec.) Selected Books for Young People. YOUNG FOLKS' CYCLOPEDIA of Common Things. $2.50. PERSONS AND PLACES. $2.50. "Every child in America should have them."-New England Journal of Education. "The Young Folks' Cyclopædia' should be in every juvenile library."-From a Report of the Connecticut Board of Education. ROUMANIAN FAIRY TALES. Col lected by MITE KREMNITZ. Square 16mo, $1.25. "So much more tinged with local color, and so much fuller of the play of poetic imagination, than those of the rest of Europe, which repeat the same stories in other forms. . . There is a wealth of local color and allusion, and a completeness of poetic form, which mark them out from others and give them a higher place as litIt is one of the best collections since erature. that of Grimm."-The Nation. BUZ: The Life and Adventures of a Honey-Bee. By MAURICE NOEL. 12mo, $1.00. "In this delightful child's book the author conveys through the medium of a story some of the chief facts in apiculture... He has succeeded, not, however, only in making his work interesting, but also very instructive. We can imagine no better book to place in the hands of children, or to read to them, for the purpose of arousing curiosity about those ever interesting creatures-bees.”— Toronto Week. GRAMMAR LAND. By M. L. NESBITT. $1.00. "A sort of humorous fairy story, with the parts of speech for its personages, with the intent to delude youngsters into the acquisition of knowledge while they fancy that they are amusing themselves. The work, let us say frankly, seems to us to be singularly well done, the interest being well sustained without a moment's forgetfulness of the more serious purpose of the book."—N. Y. Post. AN EXTRAORDINARY NOVEL. A Far Look Ahead; Or, "THE DIOTHAS." 16mo, paper, 50 cts. *** A new and cheaper edition of this extreme ly thoughtful and ingenious volume has just been issued. It should be noted that " A Far Look Ahead" was first published in 1883. What the Critics Say: "A fiction like this, which is characterized by so much thoughtfulness, so much ingenuity, so much playfulness, fancy, and imagination, together with a dash of poetry, and which, moreover, is written in so lucid and pleasing a style, ought to be a very great success."-New York Evening Telegram. "The book is devoted to customs, habits, and love in the misty future, and for pure, genuine imagination, most charmingly worked out, is unexcelled."Boston Evening Transcript. "Very thoughtful." "Extremely ingenious." "Full of poetry and imagination." "An extraordinary picture of New York and New York society in the ninety-sixth century. "There is nothing in the way of imagination so universally attractive, yet so completely mysterious, as is this speculation concerning what the progress of civilization in the coming centuries is to be." Recently Published: Knickerbocker Nuggets: "Gems of Bookmaking." XXIV.-Songs of Fairy Land. Compiled by Edward T. Mason. With illustrations from designs by Maud Humphrey. $1.25. XXIII.-The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Edited, with notes, by John Bigelow. $1.00. XXII.-American War Ballads. Comprising the noteworthy ballad poetry produced during the Revolution, the War of 1812-1814, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. The latter division includes the productions of poets on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line. Very fully illustrated. 2 vols., $2.50. A full list of this beautiful series sent on application. The Story of the Nations Series: XXVI.-The Story of Early Britain. By Alfred J. Church, author of " 'Story of Carthage," etc. $1.50. Hansa "A better volume than Early Britain' will scarcely be found, and when we say that about it, we mean to praise it very much indeed, for the series is a most admirable one. Prof. Church has succeeded not only in gathering an enormous amount of information into little compass, but he has also been successful in making it read like a story-book."-Civil Service Gazette. XXV. The Story of the Towns. By Helen Zimmern. $1.50. "Unique in the series and unique in itself. Miss Zimmern's work is admirably done. it will be read with an unusual interest and profit by many students of history who have hitherto had to deplore the lack of any book of the kind." "-Scotsman. XXIV. The Story of Phoenicia. By Prof. Geo. Rawlinson. 12mo, fully illustrated, $1.50. "Prof. Rawlinson has succeeded in gathering in a brief, yet comprehensive form about all that is known of this country, and he tells the story in an interesting style which, while it may be a little heavy for youth, does not detract from its historical value."-Boston Times. FOR SALE BY YOUR BOOKSELLER. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, HENRY HOLT & CO., New York. 27 and 29 West 23d Street, New York. Longmans, Green & Co. INDEX TO PERIODICALS. HAVE JUST PUBLISHED: THE STORY OF MUSIC. By WILLIAM J. HENDERSON. cloth cover, gilt top, $1.25. 12mo, ornamental Unique in its comprehensiveness and remarkable for the clear and concise way in which a great mass of ma Subscribers to the Co-operative Index to Periodicals are reminded that an Author-Index for 1888 has terial is treated in its pages. No one who is interested in been prepared by Mr. Fletcher and the study of music will fail to read every chapter of The Story of Music' after begining it."-New York Times. "Admirable for its succinctness, clearness, and grace fulness of statement. Mr. Henderson has acomplished with rare judgment and skill the task of telling the story of the growth of the art of music without encumbering his pages with excess of biographical material."-V. Y. Tribune. "The choice style in which this book is written lends its addded charms to a work most important on the liter can be had for $1.00 additional from the publisher. The bound volume for 1888, with ary as well as the artistic side of music."-Boston Trav- Author-Index, will be furnished eller. "Deserves the earnest attention of every musician."Boston Times. RECENT FICTION. A FAMILY TREE, And Other Stories. By BRANDER MATTHEWS. 12mo, ornamental cloth cover, $1.25. "Apart from the originality of his conceptions, his in half leather for $3.00. Subscriptions for 1890, $2.00. THE INDEX TO PERIODICALS, style is in itself a charm, recalling the masters of French P. O. Box 943. GERALD FFRENCH'S FRIENDS. By GEORGE H. JESSOP. 12mo, ornamental cloth cover, $1.25. "Mr. George H. Jessop is a keen observer and a surehanded delineator; his forcible outline sketches always fix and fascinate attention. The book as a whole is delightfully entertaining, and many of its character studies are faithful enough to deserve long life."-Boston Times. "SUCH IS LIFE." A novel. By MAY KENDALL, author of "From "It is unusual; it has the constant charm of the unexpected; and has in it both pathos and humor. The style is so choice, so refined, so full of all-pervading beauty, that it is a special delight to fall upon such a book."Boston Traveller. GOBI OR SHAMO: A Story of Three Songs. By G. G. A. MURRAY, Professor of Greek in the University of Glasgow. Crown 8vo, cloth, 376 pages, $1.25. "The Great Desert of Gobi or Shamo."-Cornwall's Geography. MICAH CLARKE: His Statement. By A. CONAN DOYLE. Crown 8vo, 421 pages, extra cloth, $1.50. "Easily the best example of the class of fiction to which it belongs of the year. It is not merely two or three incidents, but the maintained interest of the entire tale, that leads us to give it such high praise."—Christian Union. A PRIMER FOR New York. Political Education. BY R. R. BOWKER. The Union, The States, Congress, The Courts, The Administration, The Civil Service, l`opulation and Wealth, Capital and Labor, National Debt, Taxation and Revenue, The Tariff, The Public Lands, Railroads, Shipping, Occupations, Indians, Cities, Parties (with a brief History of political events to 1886), are the topics treated, by question and answer, so as to inform any voter or young person, in an hour or two of easy reading, of the leading facts as to our country. 12mo, 42 pages, 15 cents. THE SOCIETY FOR POLITICAL EDUCATION, GEORGE ILES, SECRETARY, 330 Pearl Street, New York. AGENTS: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York; In winter you mag reade them, ab ignem, by the reside; and in summer, ad umbram. under some shadie tree; and there with pass away the tedious howres. believe, is in romance." Fifteen years have gone by and Miss Hartwell is now Mrs. Catherwood, and has made a name as a writer of purely American historical romance that will live, and that has opened, indeed, an entirely new field in American literature. Mrs. Catherwood is a native of Ohio, a State that is almost as notable in its production of authors as of statesmen. Her strength lies in that she has studied the conditions of the middle West, and has found a mine of unexplored and hitherto undreamed of literary material. The "Romance of Dollard" made a very unusual impression, inciting the highest critical praise, and there was no undue enthusiasm in the words of one critic, who said: from there to Fort Frontenac, and proceeds to another of the old French forts at Starved Rock, near La Salle, Ill., on the Illinois River. This old rock has always been a favorite point for picnics and excursions. It is an immense rock, rising boldly from the lowlands of the river, cut off on all sides save one from approach, and tradition runs that a party of whites were driven on it, the only way of escape guarded by Indians, and there held till they literally died of starvation. As it now stands it is a quietly forbidding object in a rather tame and commonplace landscape, but tradition has invested it with a kind of mysteriously tragic interest that still pervades an atmosphere where little of tradition or romance is known. The two great explorers, the French La Salle and his faithful lieutenant Tonty, experienced many thrilling adventures, and these are brilliantly and vividly touched by Mrs. Catherwood. Of the noted explorer she said: "La Salle is a definite figure in the popular mind. But La Salle's greater friend is known only to historians and students. To me the finest fact in the Norman explorer's career is the devotion he commanded in Henri de Tonty. No stupid dreamer, no ruffian at heart, no betrayer of friendship, no mere blundering woodsman-as La Salle has been outlined by his enemies-could have bound to himself a man like Tonty. The love of this friend, and the words this friend has left on record thus honor La Salle. And we who like courage and steadfastness and gentle courtesy in men, owe much honor which has never been paid to Henri de Tonty." The book is well illustrated by Mr. Enoch Ward, and the publishers have given it an attractive appearance, and made it a little work of art in type and binding. (McClurg. $1.25.)Boston Traveller. M. PIERRE LOTI is one of the most fluent and eloquent of the younger set of French poet-novelists a writer of the order of De Musset, Daudet, and Maupassant. Like each of those talented men, he has a morbid streak which many readers find unpleasant. M. Loti is perhaps not one of the worst offenders, but the taint is there, and we cannot but think it injuriously affects even the best of his work. Closing our eyes to it as far as we may, there is much to be found in the work of this earnest author to excite admiration. "An Iceland Fisherman" is excessively simple in idea, but finely complex in execution. It is in effect only a picture of the hard life, the "homely joys and destiny obscure," of a set of humble folks which no one has thought it worth while heretofore to set for the admiration, at least the sympathy, of people to whom fate has been more kind. Miss Phelps, to be sure, has done something of the kind for the New England fisherman, but the conditions there are vastly more gentle than those of the North, and neither is the lady a relentless realist of the order of this Frenchman. We are made by M. Loti to enter into the lives of these humble fisher folks, their toils afloat, with the deadly risks they run, their poor, yet not altogether barren lives ashore. It is sad and suggestive showing, this toiling and moiling of a little community, entirely ignorant and insular, who have never even heard the names of Ameri can cities which we of the vicinage think to be of such consequence, though they themselves are now very well known to us. In this remote, forbidding region, the passion of love rules as elsewhere, and an episode of this tumult of the senses is the binding force of " An Iceland Fisherman." The central representative character is a youth who has vowed, somewhat after Benedict's manner, that he will never marry. He all the while loves a girl of the neighborhood, but he thinks he is strong enough to resist her and to keep his promise to himself. But at last he breaks down through noting the kindness shown by the girl to a friendless old woman. He finds the two in the village street, where the girl is protecting the old woman from cruel boys; he goes home with them, and as soon as he is within doors tells the young woman that he wants her for his wife. So sudden does the bolt strike among a primitive people ! This sourds very bald in our summary, but the love-story of Yann and Gaud is touchingly sweet. Courted in three minutes, the wedding is within a week; the fisher-groom is with his wife just six days, goes to the fishing-and never comes back! Rarely have we been brought face to face with the hard facts of unrequited toil as in this little story. It is indeed pitiful, yet it is sweet, too, and it surely leads to a hope of more artistic work from the same pen. (McClurg. $1.)-Philadelphia Evening Telegraph. |